Tara Harrow, Return to Ember
by Blue Lightning Streak
Summary: Tara Harrow is an adventurous and daring twelve-year old girl who loves listening to stories of her parents, Lina and Doon, long ago. But when food supplies in Sparks run out, it's up to Tara, her baby brother Jackie, and her best friend Terry to venture back into Ember. Where a secret stash of food is hidden somewhere from the Builders in case there was ever an emergency.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"Tara, could you go out and feed Fleet? I'm terribly busy at the moment." Lina asked her daughter.

"Yeah, sure mom." Tara replied, looking up from her book.

"Grandmother Murdo gave your mother Fleet, a long time ago," Doon smiled.

"She did?" Tara questioned.

Doon nodded and went back to his papers. Tara headed outside and patted Fleet on the head.

"You must've took mother out on long and fast rides," she said gently.

The horse said nothing. Tara grabbed the bucket of food and dumped it in Fleet's trough.

"Eat up, Fleet." Tara grinned.

It was windy outside, and Tara's long, wavy brunette was being blown in her face. She looked nothing like her parents, except for their dark hair. Tara had emerald green eyes, while her parents had brown eyes.

"Green eyes are a gift," Auntie Poppy had told her.

No one else in town had a horse, which made bragging easy for Tara. She didn't do it very often, though. Her father, Doon, didn't approve of it. He said it reminded him of someone named Tick.

That night, they ate a hearty meal. Tara's baby brother, Jackie, had spit out his peas when Lina fed him it.

"Here, let me try," Tara offered.

She took the spoon from Lina and fed Jackie.

"Now, Jackie, make mommy happy." Tara smiled softly.

Jackie swallowed and began to laugh.

"How do you do it?" Doon laughed.

"I just do!" Tara grinned.

Later that night, it was story time. Now that Tara was twelve, she had already heard most of the stories her parents told. Like escaping the city of Ember and discovering the mayor's secret stash of food. Tara could hardly believe these were all true.

"Tell me the story of getting out of Ember, you know, through the Pipeworks." Tara said.

"Of course." Lina smiled.

"It all began..."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Terence Parton, often called Terry by his friends, was the son of Lizzie Bisco and Kenny Parton. He was Tara's best friend in many ways, he had helped her up when she fell down in kindergarten, help cleaned up her water bottle spill in third grade, and helped her write her graduation speech. One day in the village of Sparks, heavy wind and rain fell and the food storage was struck by lightning. It caught on fire and all the food was burnt up. Villagers had to eat only the vegetables that grew in the fields, and since it was winter, not much were growing. This made Terry very miserable. And when he was miserable, he asked his mother Lizzie to tell him stories when she was in Ember.

"Mother, could you tell me a story? The one about the mayor's secret food?" Terry asked Lizzie.

"Of course! I'm really not the best at these stories, though, you could ask Tara's mother for more stories, the escape wouldn't have been possible without her." Lizzie sighed, thinking back about the canned food Looper had secretly gave her years ago.

"It all started on a gloomy and dreary day, of course, it wasn't raining because there was no weather in Ember..." Lizzie began.

Terry listened with anticipation and clung on to each word.

(TWO WEEKS LATER...)

"Tara, how much horse food is left?" Lina asked worriedly.

"Not much, I'll see if there are any roamers in town, they might have some horse food." Tara said, bolting out the door.

Lina sighed in recognization of herself in Tara.

"She's so much like you." Doon sighed, walking over to Lina.

"Me when I was young, I've grown in the past years. My legs have grown tired, and Fleet's getting old too." Lina snorted.

"Your still that quick little messenger I know," Doon replied, smiling.

"I wish." Lina smiled back weakly.

Outside, Tara had gone to Mary to see if she knew of any roamers coming.

"None at the moment," Mary shrugged.

"Okay. Thanks anyways." Tara sighed.

As she exited the building, she spotted Terry climbing a tree.

"Terry!" Tara exclaimed.

"Come up!" Terry grinned.

Tara climbed up the tree clumsily and sat down awkwardly.

"My dad said this was the tree that he saved Uncle Torren from," Tara remarked.

"It was on fire before," she added.

"I can tell," Terry replied, gesturing towards a section of the bark that looked like it had been burnt years ago.

"Do you ever wonder what Ember looked like? How the buildings looked? How everything looked?" Tara asked.

"Sometimes, but I'll never find the answer," Terry shrugged.

"Unless we... Dive into Ember and power back all the electricity!" Tara joked.

"There's probably some food still there, even after all these years." Terry said.

"Yeah," Tara grinned, sprouting an idea in her head.


End file.
